GW2 Vindicator WvW Builds

Vindicator carries both of the Revenant's WvW jobs, and both are built out of the same part: the dodge. The minor Tenacious Ruin replaces your dodge roll with a blow delivered from above that strikes foes when you hit the ground, and every Vindicator build is an argument about what that landing should do.

The damage build makes it hurt. Forerunner of Death shrinks the impact area, increases the damage and buffs your strike damage afterwards; Leviathan Strength pays you for keeping the endurance bar spent. The heal build makes it help: Saint of zu Heltzer widens the same landing and heals allies standing in it. Both take Angsiyan's Trust, because on a spec that spends endurance to work, a free Energy Meld is a resource, not a comfort.

Both also run the Legendary Alliance, which means neither is stuck with the bar it starts on: Alliance Tactics swaps you between Archemorus's damage — Spear of Archemorus, Reaver's Rage — and Saint Viktor's support — Awakening, Tree Song, Urn of Saint Viktor.

If you want Revenant damage that does not have to spend its endurance to get it, Conduit is the other option.

2 Vindicator builds

Playing Vindicator in WvW

The spec's mechanic is Legendary Alliance Stance — the champions Archemorus and Saint Viktor — with Alliance Tactics swapping between their two sets of skills, and Energy Meld granting endurance whenever you are on any other legend. The elite minors reward the swap itself: Balance in Discord gives you health and boons when you change legends or use Alliance Tactics, and Empire Divided gives you power while your health is high and healing power once it is not — the trait line is built for a character that is expected to take hits.

What both builds ask of you is that you treat endurance as something you spend, not something you save. That is the opposite instinct to every other melee in a zerg, and it is the thing new Vindicators get wrong. The corollary is the cost: the bar you would have used to leave a bad position is the bar you have been feeding your damage or your healing with all fight.

Where the spec struggles is reactivity. Its output is tied to dodges and to legend invokes, so it arrives on your schedule rather than the enemy's — and the enemy picks when to spike.